Brick All

Yelling at a Brick Wall

The language between a mother and a daughter can create a huge brick wall in their relationship because they have different views on life, and how they should handle it. In the book “The Joy Luck Club,” by Amy Tan, a story is told of An-Mei Hus and her daughter Rose Hsu Jordan, who is going though a divorce. An- Mei wants her daughter, Rose, to try and save her marriage. But Rose knows it’s pointless to try and upon that she decides to learn to stick up for her self, get a lawyer, and fight her soon to be ex-husband for the house. The relationship between An-Mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan shows that language is a brick wall, because they don’t understand why wants what they want. Rose doesn’t care to save her marriage; she only wants to get the house. When her mother, An-Mei, wants Rose to fight to save her marriage, because it’s the Chinese way, and how the only way to keep her honor among her family.

An-Mei Hsu was born and raised in China, but not by her mother. Her mother became the concubine of another man when An-Mei’s father had died. So An-Mei and her little brother went to live with there grandmother who they called Popo. At the house in which they lived they were not aloud to talk about, or even speak of there mother and soon enough, An-Mei and her little brother had forgotten her altogether. But Popo becomes very sick, and An-Mei’s mother returns to the home. When she was there she cuts a piece of her arm off and puts it in to soup for Popo. This was to show great respect, and was also a way of trying to cure the sick. “Here is how I came to love me mother. How I saw my own true nature. What was beneath my skin. Inside my bones.” (pg40) This is the point where An-Mei is thought about respect and honor. She saw what her mother had done for Popo, and found it in her heart to forgive her and love her again. From then on she wanted to make sure that her daughters would have honor, and respect for the family ways. “The pain you must forget, because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones.” (pg41) She saw what her mother take a piece of her own flesh and give it to Popo in order to earn her respect and honor back. She could tell how much her mother missed the family and her, and found a way to forget about the past, and love her again. An-Mei had a very rough childhood, but from it she learned that know matter what comes up in life, you still have to find a way to keep your honor and respect of the family.

Rose Hsu Jordan has completely different views on life and how things should be approached, than her mother does. Rose was raised in a completely different environment as well. She was born and raised in The Untied States of America. So there for she has been Americanized in a way that she doesn’t care to follow the same customs as her mothers culture. “This is not hope, not reason. This is your fate. This is your life, what you must do.” (pg134) An-Mei would tell rose when rose broke the news that she her marriage would soon no longer exists. But in a way Rose saw her mother as a hypocrite. She thought this because she has was there when her mother had lost all faith and hope in god and religion. When rose was younger, she and her family took a trip down to the beach, and her being the oldest she was put in charge of watching her little brother, Bing. Bing had walked off down along a reef when her other two brothers started a fight, and Rose went to break it up. But in the second Bing had fallen into the deep ocean and disappeared with out a trace. Rose, her family and coast authorities searched the water